Oops, We Did It Again

You've heard the adage "measure twice, cut once", well, we should have measued at least once and then ordered siding.  Usually we are over prepared for everything but this time we weren't.  A few weeks ago, we went to Menards after work to shop for the siding for the front of the shed.  The only measurements we had were the size of siding we would need to match the existing siding.  Guess we should have figured out how many pieces we were going to need.

So there we are, at the materials desk, trying to figure out how much we needed to order - because of course they don't stock what we need, it HAD to be a special order, which also means you can't return the excess.  Our calculations pointed at 20 pieces of 12' long siding.  So that's what we ordered.

Turns out we only needed 8 pieces to do the front.  Oops.  Now we have 12 pieces of siding laying on our shed floor.  12 pieces is enough to do almost an entire side of the shed.

After crunching some numbers, 'cause you know how much I love to do that, we decided it would only take about an additional $320 to purchase enough siding to do the remainder of the building.  Long term, this will be a better choice because even though I scraped and scraped and scraped, it's still not enough.  More paint will peel eventually and there are deep gouges where big pieces of old paint have come off.  That is going to make for an incredibly uneven top coat.  

When I went to Menard's to place my additional order, I was given a pretty clear sign that we had made the right choice.  The siding was now on sale for $1 off per piece!  So I saved $40 on my new order and then took my receipt to customer service for a price adjustment on my previous order, which added an additional $20 to my savings.  While I was waiting for that, something caught my eye.  Nope, it wasn't a golden ticket, it was even better...REBATE RECEIPT!!!  The rebate was going to give me and additional $1.50 off each piece.  Put another $90 in my pocket!  Total savings today of $150.00.  That means we re-sided the entire shed for under $330.00.  Not too shabby.

The plan is to finish the remainder of the siding over Labor Day Weekend.  Plenty has to happen before then.  Here's our up to date list broken into small pieces that we can accomplish each night to stay on our timeline:

Remove north wall siding - done

Rough in north windows - done

Remove east wall siding - done

Rough in south wall windows

Remove south wall siding

Install east wall soffit

Install vertical 1x4 trim on the corners (must be primed first)

Trim out north windows - half done

Trim out south windows

A first I was feeling guilty about not keeping the existing siding but now with all the additional savings, the project became more affordable.  This new siding should also make the shed fairly maintenance free for the next 5 years or so because it won't require touch up paint.

So what turned out to be a silly mistake by over ordering on our part will end up being the best thing that ever happened to this shed.